Pioneering
rock 'n' roll musician Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was
born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936. He died in 1959 in a
plane crash in Iowa. The youngest of four children of Lawrence and Ella
(Drake) Holley, Buddy became one of the greatest legends of rock music.

His father worked as
a tailor and salesman in a Lubbock clothing store, and though Lawrence
did not play an instrument, he and Buddy's mom encouraged their children's
musical skills.

At age five, Buddy
appeared with his brothers in a talent show in the neighboring town of
County Line. They won five dollars singing "Down the River of Memories."
At age eleven Buddy took piano lessons, but quit after nine months. He
started studying steel guitar, but eventually taught himself to play on
acoustic guitar. At Hutchinson Junior High he and a friend, Bob Montgomery,
formed a country music duo that later performed rock-and-roll music.

In the autumn of 1953,
the duo added bass player Larry Welborn and started playing weekly on Lubbock
radio station KDAV. The program was called "Sunday Party." At Lubbock High,
Holly studied printing and drafting. He also worked part-time at Panhandle
Steel Products. He stayed focused on his dream, however, of making his
living as a musician.

In 1954 and 1955 the
band made some demo records in Wichita Falls, but in 1956 Decca offered
only Buddy a contract. Decca tried to turn him into a country artist. Two
unsuccessful singles later, the label and Buddy parted ways.

Holly returned to Lubbock
still determined to make it big in the music business. In February 1957
Holly, Welborn, who was later replaced by Joe B. Mauldin, Jerry Allison
on drums, and Niki Sullivan on guitar went to the studio of an independent
producer. Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, is where the band
adopted the name the Crickets and formed its unique style. Holly's upbeat,
pop sound became the transition between the raw rockabilly of Sun Records
and the sophisticated pop rock music that would follow in the decades to
come.

The Crickets soon signed
a contract with Brunswick Records and Buddy signed a solo contract with
Brunswick's Coral label. Holly's vocal style, with hiccup-like patterns,
extra syllables, abrupt changes of pitch, and what one critic termed a
playfully ironic, childlike quality. The Crickets first single, "That'll
Be the Day," with "I'm Looking for Someone to Love" on the flip side, was
released May 27, 1957. By June, it charted third on the pop charts and
second on the rhythm and blues charts. It made Holly virtually an overnight
success. His popularity quickly rivaled that of Elvis Presley.

Holly and his band
were thought to be black by those who only heard them. In 1957, they traveled
with black artists and performed at predominantly black theaters like the
Apollo in New York and the Howard in Washington, D.C. The Apollo audience
was indifferent at first. But on the third day there, the Crickets started
with a "Bo Diddley" song which thrilled the crowd.

The band was soon on
television's "American Bandstand," "The Arthur Murray Dance Party," and
"The Ed Sullivan Show" and on tour with the biggest rock music acts. Holly's
second solo single, "Peggy Sue," with "Everyday" on the flip side, topped
out at third on the charts. The Crickets' second single, "Oh Boy!," with
"Not Fade Away," sold nearly a million copies.

Guitarist Niki Sullivan
quit the band, and the Crickets toured Australia, Florida, and Great Britain
as a trio before a new guitarist, Tommy Allsup, joined them. Their
third single, "Maybe Baby," with "Tell Me How" on side two, charted in
the top 100.

In the summer of 1958
Holly met Maria Elena Santiago, a receptionist at a music company. Buddy
asked her to marry him on their first dinner date that night. She accepted.
The wedding was on August 15, 1958 in Lubbock.

Late 1958 brought a
slow period in Holly's career. In October, he decided to move to New York
City. Allison and Mauldin wanted to stay with Norman Petty in Clovis. Holly
agreed to break up the Crickets and go solo. But in January 1959, Holly
was accompanied on a tour by Allsup, bassist Waylon Jennings, an old Lubbock
friend who became a country music star, and drummer Charlie Bunch. Promoters
falsely billed them as the Crickets.

After a February 2
show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly and his band, along with Ritchie Valens,
and J. P. (the Big Bopper) Richardson, were to take a tour bus on a 430-mile
trip to Moorhead, Minnesota, but Holly chartered a plane to fly him and
his band to Fargo, North Dakota, near Moorhead. Jennings and Allsup gave
up their seats to Richardson and Valens. The red Beechcraft Bonanza, named
"Miss American Pie," took off from Mason City, ten miles east of
Clear Lake, at around 1:50 AM on February 3, 1959. The weather was cold
and snowy. The plane crashed just after taking off, eight miles from the
Mason City airport. The pilot, Valens, Richardson, and Holly, who was found
twenty feet from the point of impact, died. Shortly following Holly's funeral
in Lubbock, his pregnant widow, Maria, had a miscarriage. The last Buddy
Holly single, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," with "Raining in My Heart" on
the reverse side, which had been released a few weeks earlier on January
5, hit the Top 100 on the day of the crash.

Holly's music was a
major influence for such rock music legends as the Beatles, the Rolling
Stones, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen,
and Elvis Costello. In 1971, Don McLean released a song calling February
3, 1959, "the day the music died." The song was called "American Pie,"
and it became a number one hit. The following quote is just a sample of
its lengthy, poignant lyrics:

A long, long
time ago,I can still remember
how that music used to make me smile.And I knew if I had
my chanceThat I could make
those people dance,And maybe they’d be
happy for a while.

But February made me
shiverWith every paper I’d
deliver.Bad news on the doorstep.I couldn't take one
more step.

I can't remember
if I criedWhen I read about
his widowed bride.But something touched
me deep insideThe day the music
died.

So, bye bye, Miss American
PieDrove my Chevy to
the levyBut the levy was dry

And them good old boys
were drinkin’ whiskey and rye, singin’:This'll be the day
that I dieThis'll be the day
that I die.

The movie The Buddy
Holly Story was released in 1978. This movie version of his life and
contribution to music started a major revival of Holly's short, influential
career. The city of Lubbock soon realized the financial benefits of promoting
Buddy Holly's hometown as a tourist attraction. In 1979 the city commissioned
a bronze statue of Holly by sculptor Grant Speed. It was unveiled in 1980,
near the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center. Lubbock later celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of Buddy Holly's birth with a concert featuring
Bo Diddley and Bobby Vee. A 1990 auction of Holly memorabilia in New York
raised over $703,000. Gary Busey, who played Buddy in The Buddy Holly
Story, bought his guitar for $242,000. The Hard Rock Cafe bought Holly's
trademark eyeglasses for $45,100.

Bibliography:
Ron Tyler, ed., The New Handbook of Texas, Vol. 3 (Austin, Texas:
Texas State Historical Association, 1996) pp. 666-67. The Ultimate American
Pie Website, American
Pie by Don McClean. National Public Radio report on the 40th anniversary
of Buddy Holly's death, February 3, 1999. Michael Bane, Who's Who in
Rock (New York: Facts on File, 1981) p. 99.